Grace and Free Will in Justification: A Textual Study in Aquinas

GRACE AND FREE WILL IN JUSTIFICATION: A TEXTUAL STUDY IN AQUINAS T HIS IS AN historical study in which the development of St. Thomas's doctrine on the relationship of grace and free will, divine and human action in the process of justification, is followed step by step, though it may be of identical conclusions. The resources of the historical method force this procedure upon us, not simply for the sake of erudition but for the benefit of the doctrine itself, that we may more easily follow its genesis and evolution over the changing years/ St. Thomas himself was conscious of the condition of progress in the thought of individuals and of society: If anyone proceeds to an investigation of truth he is helped to find it by any preceding investigation. This is valid for the same man who now sees what he did not see before, and also for different men inasmuch as one takes what his predecessors discovered and adds to it.2 In the course of this study we will see how closely this applies to the author. We shall see him in the early works carrying on a constant dialogue with his contemporaries and in particular with St. Albert the Great and the Franciscan St. Bonaventure , accepting their discoveries and adding to them. And we shall see him gradually emancipate himself from them, see things which he did not see before, and finally arrive at the term of his synthetic sweep in the Summa Theologia-e. In his early period St. Thomas twice treated the complex of questions relating to grace, in the Commentarium in Sententias and in the De Veritate. As both works offer almost the same doctrine and have the same notable differences with respect to the later works, they can be studied together. The 1 Cf. M-D. Chenu 0. P. Introduction al'Etude de S. Th011ULS d'Aquin, pp. ~84-5. • I Ethic., lect. ~. 601 602 MICHAEL G. LAWLER first part of this analysis will be devoted to this study, the second to the development which culminated in the Summa Theologiae, and the concluding section to the reasons that provoked this development. THE EARLY TEACHING I. Necessity of Preparation for Grace Man is justified, St. Paul tells us, not by works but by faith, and this a gratuitous gift of God.3 On the other hand, turn to me, says the Lord, and I will tum to you,4 He who made you without your consent will not justify you without it.5 The apparent contradiction between these texts presents the problem of the relationship between grace and free will. In what sense is a preparation for justification, a turning to God, necessary? And if it is necessary, how can justification be gratuitous? The theologians of the Middle Ages had worried over this problem without coming to any uniform solution. Man must prepare himself for justification, Bonaventure taught. By a special privilege God can justify him without any special preparation , as he did in the case of St. Paul. But the general rule is that man must dispose himself by a preparation which precedes the act of justification.6 St. Thomas is of another opinion. True, every adult must prepare himself for the grace of justification; but this preparation need not necessarily precede the infusion of grace, it suffices if it accompanies it. Paul on the road to Damascus was instantly converted from his intention of sinning,7 but he prepared himself by cooperating with the grace offered to him. The only preparation necessary is a simple cooperation with grace.8 • Rom. 3, 28 and 24. • Zach. 1: 3. 5 Qui fecit te sine te non te justificat sine te. Aug., Serm.ad Popul. 169. 6 IV Sent., d. 17, q. 1, a. 2; q. 3, corp. et ad 1 and 2. 7 Ibid., q. 1, a. 2, sol. 1 ad 1. 8 Ibid., sol. 1 corp. GRACE AND FREE WILL IN JUSTIFICATION 603 Why is preparation for justification demanded? There are two reasons: one is based on the nature of the will, the other on the conditions of justification insofar as it is a species of generation.9 The nature of...